If the center cannot hold

Star-Telegram | Editorials:

“‘From the 16th to the 20th centuries, the course of Iraqi history was affected by the continuing conflicts between the Safavid Empire in Iran and the Ottoman Turks,’ says the Library of Congress' country study of Iraq. ‘The Safavids, who were the first to declare Shia Islam the official religion of Iran, sought to control Iraq both because of the Shia holy places at An Najaf and Karbala and because Baghdad, the seat of the old Abbasid Empire, had great symbolic value. The Ottomans, fearing that Shia Islam would spread to Anatolia (Asia Minor), sought to maintain Iraq as a Sunni-controlled buffer state.’ ”

Ed Cognoski responds:

Silly Americans. We insist on forcing global politics into a mold created by 9/11. We are waging a war against terrorism, against evil doers who hate our Western liberal democratic liberties or our wealth or our religion. America blunders into Iraq oblivious of history like that documented by the Library of Congress' country study of Iraq. Not one American in a thousand ever heard of the Safavids or the Ottomans. Yet, like politics the world over, the struggle in Iraq turns out to be about local politics. More about ancient grudges between next door neighbors than anything to do with the World Trade Center in New York City.

The prescription of Doctor Bush? Spread democracy. Hold elections -- in Iraq, in Palestine, in Egypt -- and the people will respond by turning their backs on centuries of sectarian struggle, tribal struggle, imperial struggle. It's as sophisticated as a sixth grade civics lesson. Which, given Americans' appalling lack of education about world history, is probably all that it is based on. Silly Americans.